Reason Morning Links: FBI Rounds Up Bad Puerto Rico Cops, Bloomberg Wants to Ban Soda Purchases With Food Stamps, Clashes in Pakistan

• FBI arrests 89 Puerto Rican police officers for aiding drug traffickers.
• Mayor Bloomberg wants permission to forbid people from using food stamps to buy soda.
• Toxic sludge spill in Hungary reaches the Danube River.
• Obama administration handing out waivers to companies protesting the new health care bill.
• Killer of honeybees found. Article includes the phrase "bee autopsies."
• NATO clashes with Pakistani militants after inadvertent strike on Pakistan's border security.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Killer of honeybees found. Article includes the phrase "bee autopsies."

(Necropsy sounds too creepy.) It was Boo-Boo Bear, wasn't it?

[Brett L]

I, also, thought the subject had to be human in an autopsy.

[wylie]

Keep quibbling guys, meanwhile Radley is giving us what we want: bee autopsies. Christ, I would've woken up earlier had I know I had an article about bee autopsies on the schedule today.

[Brett L]

I only want to read about bee necropsies.

[Cyto]

Autopsies? This article introduced me to the phrase "bee paste". That's a little more striking in my book.

[Pip]

Yogi Bear: Straight or gay? Discuss.

[wylie]

Snagglepuss is definitely gay, and I think Quickdraw McGraw swings both ways. Boo Boo is gayer than springtime. But Yogi? I never thought about it.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

While Boo Boo was obviously a twink, Yogi was in fact a bear. Case closed.

[wylie]

I was trying to avoid being labeled a specist. The majority of Ursine Americans bear no resemblance to the sterotypes.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

They do to some of the ones I have seen.

[Steve]

Didn't he have a girlfriend?

http://www.geekforcefive.com/images/uploads/yogibear.jpg

[The Gobbler]

Lots of gay guys have "girlfriends".

[Restoras]

Not gay. Ricochet Rabbit was on speed though.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Ricochet Rabbit is overdue for a comeback, if'n you ask me.

[BakedPenguin]

...and Mighty Mouse was on cocaine.

[Johnny Longtorso]

White House Already Granting Exemptions To Obamacare All Over The Place

Another brilliant moment in AGW marketing

[Johnny Longtorso]

Shorter Obamacare: These rules will put you out of business. Come beg me for an exemption. You're now my personal bitch.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Can anyone say "Enabling Act"?

[Restoras]

More likely "pay" for an exemption with gobs of money to re-election committees.

[Pablo]

Does anyone have even a shred of doubt that these waivers will be another political gift doled out only to the administration's friends and donors?

[Juice]

I'd like to know how the exemptions are legal. Is Obama aiding and abetting criminal behavior? It's not like the executive can just exempt people from laws at will (legally).

[Fist of Etiquette]

Obama administration handing out waivers to companies protesting the new health care bill.

What if they threw a healthcare insurance reform and nobody came?

[Pro Libertate]

Is the toxic sludge blue, at least?

[J. Strauss]

Good one.

[West Texas Boy]

The article does say that its highly alkaline.

Litmus paper, anyone?

[Brett L]

Bright red.

[Jet]

It's no longer the "Blue Danube", but the "Red Dead Danube".

[BlueBook]

Surely the combination will make purple, which in certain atmospheric conditions could become hazy, and possibly turn to rain.

[yet another dave]

Actually I think it has been a long time since the Danube was blue... more of a festering sewer greyish brown So red is an improvement?

[Pro Libertate]

Is that a sequel to Red Dead Redemption? Seems kind of odd. I don't think they had cowboys in Austria.

[Ted S.]

The Red Danube has already been done, thank you very much.

[Joe M]

The food stamps thing, that actually seems legit to me. I mean, if you're getting money from the government, I suppose they can dictate what you spend it on. If you want the sugar soda, you can still spend your own money on it.

[AlmightyJB]

I think the bigger issue is how much free time the Mayor has.

[Joe M]

Oh wait, I thought the city was already crime-free.

[Mo]

Sure he's got the billions of dollars necessary, but it's not like Bloomberg has the physique to go all Batman in Gotham.

[[e-mail]]

This falls squarely in the not-gonna-do-shit file. Since foodstamps aren't really enough to cover all a families food budget, they just buy the veggies or w/e with the stamps, and corral the forbidden foods out to get paid for in cash. Fungibility is a bitch.

That said, I'd have to agree that if you're getting $$$ from the govt. for food, it's not out of line for the government wanting to only pay for nutritious food.

[BakedPenguin]

Or they go to a store that will ring up receipts for "bananas" that contain 20 ounces of sugar water.

[Rich]

"there are a great many ethical reasons to consider why one would not want to stigmatize people on food stamps."

I thought that's why we're calling it "SNAP" these days.

[Pope Jimbo]

Why even fuck around with food stamps then?

Just have them drop down to the welfare office and they can pick up a week's worth of Meals Ready to Eat for themselves. MRE's are what our troops love and are very nutritional.

[Brett L]

I think you packed all of the MRE lies in two sentences.

[Pope Jimbo]

I admit to a fondness for the cheese substance on crackers in MRE's.

It was nice knowing that by eating the cheese and crackers you could go nearly an entire week in the field without needing to take a crap.

[Natick Soldier Center]

It's nice knowing that someone appreciates our efforts.

[AA]

I still shat quite regularly.

[SugarFree]

As a young man, a vet bet me I couldn't eat an entire MRE. Fool. Although I didn't rehydrate the pears. Pear dust was fine with me.

[AA]

What a dumb ass. MRE's are not THAT hard to eat.

[SugarFree]

He was a retard psychopath. Worst boss ever. Alcoholic, bitter, prone to violence, and thought anyone that had ever read a book was a faggot. And thought being in the service for a few years meant he got a pass from society for any bad behavior in perpetuity.

I used imagine my dad (who was an MP) nightsticking him to death to get through the workday.

[Abdul]

And now he edits a major libertarian magazine! wow, what a career path for Mr. Gillespie.

[STEVE SMITH]

STEVE SMITH LOVE MRE, ALTHOUGH STEVE SMITH CALL THEM HIKERS.

[wylie]

Just have them drop down to the welfare office and they can pick up a week's worth of Meals Ready to Eat for themselves.

Wouldn't that be massively more expensive than letting them buy soda and chips?

[Pope Jimbo]

Oh yeah. But cost isn't the issue. The goal is to get the po folk to stop eating evil food.

[JD]

At 1200 calories each, or 3600 calories a day, I don't think MREs are the way to go to get the target population to eat more healthily. They are designed for a soldier active in the field all day, not sitting on your ass watching soaps and collecting welfare.

[J sub D]

The food stamps thing, that actually seems legit to me. I mean, if you're getting money from the government, I suppose they can dictate what you spend it on. If you want the sugar soda, you can still spend your own money on it.

Over 80% of economists, from both the left and right, agree that cash assistance does a far better job of helping the impoverished than vouchers for food, housing, medical care, etc.

Of course if we went that route thousands of bureaucrats presently micromanaging the lives of the poor (which they know nothing about) would have to find gainful employment and granstanding politicians would have to find another whipping boy.

[MP]

Consensus?

[Futurist]

The Obamacare thing, that actually seems legit to me. I mean, if you're getting money from the government, I suppose they can dictate what medical services you get. If you want minimum coverage that suits your individual needs, you can still spend your own money on it, except it probably won't be available.

Intended consequences, yeah?

[mad libertarian guy]

But the difference is that Obamacare is not a voluntary program: food stamps is.

Try again.

[prolefeed]

Food stamps aren't very voluntary to the people forced to pay for the program.

[adam]

Obamacare doesn't dictate that you take subsidies, just that you have health insurance. Only the people taking the subsidies would have their medical choices dictated to them.

[Futurist]

This

[Rich]

"We will not allow the corrupt actions of a few to destroy the good work of so many," Holder said

Unfortunately, he was talking about Puerto Rican police corruption instead of any number of other more-deserving crackdowns.

[Ska]

I really thought the article was going to be about La Perla, the functionally legal drug market in Old San Juan. You have cops watching the one road that goes in and out of the neighborhood, while in the slums below kids with fishing tackle boxes full of all your favorite party goods flock to you trying to sell their wares. It's an interesting system, and everyone knows about it. As long as violence against tourists is off-limits in the neighborhood the cops and thugs live in harmony so you can get your party on.

[capitol l]

Sounds like what the cop was trying to do in Baltimore on The Wire.

[Ska]

Yeah, it sort of has that Amsterdam, MD vibe, but not as cracked out. Since it caters to tourists you don't have the folks hiding in abandoned tin shacks getting high - they're coming in off of cruise ships or from bar hopping on San Sebastian, getting their shit, and going back to the bars.

[P Brooks]

City health officials say that drinking 12 ounces of soda a day can make a person gain 15 pounds a year.

Was this in the same Public Health textbook which says masturbation causes blindness?

[Pope Jimbo]

A can of coke has about 100 cals. Unsweetened OJ has about 120. Sweetened OJ (like you get at McDonalds) is about 140.

So let's accept that drinking a can of coke each day adds 15 lb. to your fat lazy food stamp using ass.

That means that drinking "healthy" OJ would add either 18 lb. or 21 lb. to that same spandex splitting ass of yours.

This is why journalism majors suck. Why can't one of them do this same math in their head and then ask Bloomberg to explain why he thinks pop is evil and juice is great?

[kinnath]

An excess of 100 calories a day adds up to 365,000 calories a year which is about 10 lbs per year weight gain. But the key part of that sentence is "excess".

[HFCS Guy]

fucking decimal places; starting over . .

100/day = 36,500 calories per year == 10 lbs weight gain.

[wylie]

Why can't one of them do this same math in their head

Or more generously, I'll lend them a pencil and something to write on. I can meet them 1/2way on this math thing.

[Tulpa]

I'm looking at a can of Coke right now and it says it has 140 calories.

[Pope Jimbo]

Are you calling the internet a liar?

[Brett L]

Maybe serving vs. can-size. 1 serving is usually 8 oz.

[Tulpa]

Yes, I am.

[Tulpa]

Also, juice has vitamins in it. The problem isn't so much calories per se as calories without nutrients.

But of course, you can more than make up for that can of Coke by walking a mile in 20 minutes.

[Nephilium]

My gods! People drinking 12 ounces of 2% milk a day will gain 20 pounds a year. And forget whole milk... that will cause the whole city to balloon to parade float sizes.

[SugarFree]

12 ounces of semen a day would add 45 pounds in a year.

[Yolanda]

Preach it, Bro!

[Pip]

You have openely declared that you are fat, right SugarFree?

[SugarFree]

I'm not an immobile mountain of flesh, but yes, I'm am overweight. But I only snowball the dudes I blow, so the calories don't apply to me.

[AA]

How many calories to you burns giving the blow jobs?

[SugarFree]

Not enough to make me thin, obviously.

[AA]

Then you need to work harder.

[SugarFree]

I was always branded an underachiever in high school.

[AA]

"Voted most likely to give poor blow jobs"

[SugarFree]

Don't bring up yearbooks. I'm still miffed I didn't get class clown. Although I pretty sure that guy killed himself in college.

[The Gobbler]

I recall that the year I was a senior, the yearbook advisor (i forget what class she taught) decided that naming a class clown or a person most likely to succeed was an old and boring practice so she wasn't going to permit us to do that. And she didn't. What a fucking bitch.

[Ragin Cajun]

In my yearbook, some girl arranged the poem next to her picture so that the first letters of each line spelled "Lick my clit". No one caught it until after the books were published.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Unfortunately, it's usually the case that the girls that do that kind of thing are about the last ones whose clit you actually would want to lick.

[AA]

But it was still awesome she did that.

[prolefeed]

Unfortunately, it's usually the case that the girls that do that kind of thing are about the last ones whose clit you actually would want to lick.

Speak for yourself. Smart, kinda geeky chicks work for me.

[JEP]

For the record, I drank a gallon of whole milk a day for 6 months straight.

I was lifting heavily at the time and my goal was to gain weight, but I only went from 155 to 165. Gained a lot of strength though.

And there was that one time around the holidays when I had 3 three gallons of eggnog in two weeks in addition to my gallon of milk, and ate a pint of ice cream three times a week.

I've never weighed more than 168#...

[JEP]

BTW, I'm only three and a half feet tall

[JEP]

But I'm dating the hottest broad in the shire...can't get enough of my hairy feet.

[Shocked]

Context has no place in modern journalism.

[T]

I'm guessing Bloomberg is using soda as a test run. If he can get the soda thing through, I imagine he'll go after more things like evil transfats and snacks with too much salt.

Fuck Bloomberg. Money is fungible, and he, of all politicians, should know that.

[Qualis Artifex Pereo]

Yeah, but this really isn't the worst thing he could do. The majority of losers on foodstamps probably /do/ need a nanny like Mike Bloomberg to tell them what to do.

Alternatively, I'm of the opinion that you should stop having to follow rules once you get into certain positions of responsibility or income brackets. Like drug and traffic laws should not apply to you if you are already demonstrably productive and responsible. If you can't even keep your own act together, you should still be free unless your taking handouts, in which case you should be beholden to whatever terms the giver stipulates.

[wylie]

Nice way to stereotype people. I'll go remind 10yrold Me that my family were losers. So, are all newly divorced mothers raising their kids alone losers, or just the ones who can't make ends meet?

And what part about being productive and responsible in general guarantees that same person behaves properly on the road or with their drugs? Just because someone makes a good living they should be allowed to run traffic signals/signs or other reckless behaviors? The better direction to take that line of thought would be: why pull over drivers unless they're actually driving recklessly? Just speeding isn't necessarily dangerous. Speeding on a country road, at night, in the rain? *BWOOP BWOOP*, license suspension. Swerving around because you're driving drunk? Get out them scissors i save for cuttin up licenses. We could actually, you know, focus on enforcing the law in a way that actually promotes safety. That was the whole point, right?

Here's what I dont get though: why not just give people a job instead of a handout? It's not like we have a shortage of noskill bullshit gov't jobs, give those suckers out to the people who really need them. Oh, sorry, I forgot that the people who already have those jobs probably couldn't find gainful employment anywhere else (unless all the worlds garbagemen up and died tomorrow.)

[P Brooks]

Public health experts greeted Mr. Bloomberg's proposal cautiously. George Hacker, senior policy adviser for the health promotion project of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said a more equitable approach might be to use educational campaigns to dissuade food-stamp users from buying sugared drinks.

I wonder who Mister Hacker might suggest as a paid consultant to structure and implement this re-education program.

[Big Tobacco]

Mandate warning labels on sugared drinks. Sauce for the goose ...

[?]

The mayor requested a ban for two years to study whether it would have a positive impact on health and whether a permanent ban would be merited.

Ladies and gentlemen, the philosophy of pragmatism, in all its dreary, petty banality.

Mr. Bloomberg and his health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, said the ban would help curb the city's obesity epidemic

That's right. Words no longer have meanings.

"This initiative will give New York families more money to spend"

Reality is whatever we want it to be, as long as it's for The Families?.

[Brett L]

re: Obesity Epidemics

This is why I don't sleep with fatties.

[Kreel Sarloo]

That's where I went wrong, dammit.

Bitch gave me the fat.

[wylie]

Where's the outrage over the real epidemic: condoms don't prevent transmission of teh fat.

[John Tagliaferro]

Killer of honeybees found. Article includes the phrase "bee autopsies.

Stories like that lead to trouble like this. Almost as bad as drawing Mohammed or burning a Koran.

[Rich]

"It looks like the suspect is probably very, very unstable"

Try saying that about other types of True Believer.

[Nick]

Lowell officials locked down schools in the area as a precaution, Lowell police officials said.

Because the guy was shooting farmers and constructions workers at farmhouses after asking about bees, let's overreact For The Children.

[bunkerbill]

But there are solid clues: both the virus and the fungus proliferate in cool, damp weather... so, global warming the bees?

[SugarFree]

Killer of honeybees found.

Good. I hope it wipes out that invasive foreign species.

[J sub D]

It's cell phones, right?
High voltage power lines?
CFCs?

Oh, it's like natural disease shit. I expect the surving colonies are more resistant to the viral/fungal disease and will pass that on to future generations. But what the hell do I know? My last formal biology education was in 1970.*

* True story, in my HS biology class we has a glass walled beehive with egress to the outdoors via a pipe in the classroom. One day a brave, but not too bright, mouse crawled into the beehive. They killed him and walled the carcass up. Tell me that ain't a fucking cool biology lesson.

[wylie]

They killed him and walled the carcass up. Tell me that ain't a fucking cool biology lesson.

Hold the class for an additional period and they get their daily fill of poetry as well.

[Stretchy]

That ain't a fucking cool biology lesson. That's a fucking bitchin' biology lesson. If only that had happened in the age of ubiquitous video cameras, we could all be watching it right now.

(and yes, I spelled ubiquitous correctly on the first try, without the aid of a spell-checker)

[JW]

This can't be it. It has to be man-made.

Everyone knows that Nature doesn't do these sorts of awful things. She's harmonious.

[wylie]

Totally. You know the dinosaurs went extinct from retranthropomorphic factors, right?

[Ted S.]

If you haven't seen it before, you might enjoy The Hellstrom Chronicle, available on Youtube but not DVD. 🙁

[Madbiker]

I thought they just went home to Melissa Majoria?

[The Gobbler]

"Exactly how that combination kills bees remains uncertain, the scientists said ? a subject for the next round of research. But there are solid clues: both the virus and the fungus proliferate in cool, damp weather, and both do their dirty work in the bee gut, suggesting that insect nutrition is somehow compromised."

So to save the bees, we just need to heat up the planet a few degrees.

[Joe M]

Sounds like we just need to microwave the bees.

[DG]

From the honeybee article:

Suspected culprits ranged from pesticides to genetically modified food.

What a surprise! The two agricultural boogeymen of the left. Is there anything they can't and aren't blamed for?

[OJ]

I'm just glad they found the real killers.

[HFCS Guy]

It can't possibly be a virus and a fungus. It is intuitively obvious to all sophisticated thinkers that genetically altered corn is killing the honeybees.

[Tulpa]

You do know that viruses and funguses are genetically altered from their forebears, no?

[wylie]

1. Not all the time.

2. What the hell does viral/fungal genealogy have to do with GM Foods?

[Tulpa]

1. Really? They're methanogens?

2. You don't want to know.

[Slut Bunwalla]

I'm surprised they didn't say global warming/climate change is responsible.

[John Tagliaferro]

Wait for the next round of accusations.

[Pip]

"Global Warming May Be Partly to Blame for Honeybee Deaths"

http://environment.about.com/o.....eybees.htm

[Jet]

Killer of honeybees found.

At least the Dept of Homeland Security has helped to do something productive. Do you suppose the bees bow down 5 times a day and pray in the direction of Mecca?

[dbcooper]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2.....print.html

Have hordes of sex workers snubbed the Commonwealth games?

They never turn up when you're expecting them

Is it possible that somewhere out there is a lost tribe of sex workers, condemned forever to wander the globe in search of work and pay? We only ask because the latest alarming reports [1] from the Commonwealth Games in Delhi warn of some 40,000 sex workers about to descend on the event.

Indian NGO Impulse NGO Network seem to believe that sex trade workers numbered in their thousands have been lured to India by promises of "lucrative pay" - though in reality they face exploitation and abuse.

For some reason 40,000 just happens to be the magic number of prostitutes that were forecast to turn up at the World Cup in South Africa this year, at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver before that, and at the last World Cup in Germany. What is the significance of this number?

[Jet]

I'm sure it's just a random number meaning umpteen, kind of like the Biblical 40 days and 40 nights.

[wylie]

What is the significance of this number?

I would ask the guys at Games Workshop, but that's just me.

[Ska]

Space marines FTW!

[SFC B]

I don't know why I was surprised to find someone beat me to GW reference in a comment thread on Reason.

[wylie]

Dune and Wh40K references travel faster than the speed of light. I blame foldspace/the warp.

[MNG]

GOP ad calls God-fearing Blue Collar West Virginian's "Hicky;" John et. al appalled at blatant elitism I'm sure

http://www.washingtonmonthly.c.....026013.php

[Brett L]

"Clothing Suggestions" included jeans, work boots, flannel shirt, denim shirt, "Dickie's [sic] type jacket with t-shirt underneath," down-filled vest, "John Deer [sic] hats (not brand new, preferably beat up)," and "Trucker Hats (not brand new, preferably beat up)."

That is how hicks dress, except I don't usually see the vest down south. Only some fucking city-boy ad major could misspell John Deere.

[Pip]

I saw this crap on Morning Joe. What a desparate group these Democrats be. They can call the Tea Partyists racists, bigots an violent maniacs and that's just fine. But hicky? Now that's a real insult.

Go fuck yourself, Minge.

[MNG]

Well, I'm not the one railing about "elitism." Suggesting W. Virginians are "hicky" is pretty elitist...

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

As I read it, the candidate never said or even suggested that West Virginians were hicky. The advertising agency his campaign hired to put together the ad for them said in its casting call that they were looking for people with a "hicky" look.

As with just about all things having to do with politics and elections, a tempest in a teapot and much ado about nothing. Big fucking deal.

[Pip]

Tit-for-tat gotcha looks really good on you, Minge.

[Spoonman.]

I honestly don't see what's offensive about saying "try to look West Virginian".

[DG]

I think the fact that Raese is running on the platform of being good for business, and nevertheless, the big mining companies just came out in support of his rival, current Gov. Manchin, is probably more of a problem for him than this ad.

[shrike]

I'm all for this. Non-liberals ARE hicky.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

I beleive the correct term is "hickish", not "hicky".

[Fluffy]

Is the Hungarian plant where the spill occurred a Communist-era facility?

I can't imagine they're building a lot of aluminum plants in Hungary these days.

But I can't find information on the plant itself or its age anywhere.

[Wrestlers Are Gay]

Two University of Wisconsin-La Crosse freshmen have been charged with sexually assaulting another male student.

Casey Gudis, of Ladysmith, 18, and Brayden Wienke, 19, of Clear Lake, each were charged Wednesday with first-degree sexual assault. Wienke was charged as a party to the crime.

According to the criminal complaint, Wienke is accused of pinning the victim Sept. 27 while Gudis sodomized the man after the alleged victim threw playing cards at Wienke.

The university placed the suspects on emergency suspension and intends to seek expulsion for nonacademic misconduct.

Wienke won the Division 3 WIAA wrestling championship in his weight class in 2009 and 2010.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_16276974?source=most_viewed

[Slut Bunwalla]

So holding him down and farting in his face wasn't good enough, huh? They had to fuckin' fuck him in the ass?

What is this world coming to.

[Pablo]

I RTFA'd--they didn't fuck him in the ass, they shoved a lint roller up his ass. Actually that sounds more painful.

[Warty]

Well, if you're from a place called Ladysmith, of course you grow up to be a manrapist.

[wylie]

The rapists names struck me as really rapey too.

[Pope Jimbo]

At least they didn't have a party and then refuse to let the cops in.

Those monsters have to be charged with a $86,000 fine.

[P Brooks]

Over 80% of economists, from both the left and right, agree that cash assistance does a far better job of helping the impoverished than vouchers for food, housing, medical care, etc.

But they might take that cash and buy Teh Demon Rum, or (HORROR OF HORRORS!) go to a titty bar and cause patriarchical oppressions and exploitations and who-knows-what other depredations what with their male gazes and rape cultures and whatnot!

[Brett L]

Surely the FEMA debit cards distributed after Katrina should give them hard evidence on this subject.

[robc]

Best line from the bee article:

"we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles
Wick said. "It was very complicated."

[Ragin Cajun]

Still unsolved is what makes the bees fly off into the wild yonder at the point of death...Another possibility, he said, is a kind of insect insanity.

At which point, the honeybees are muttering "Hope, change, hope, change..."

[Gilbert Martin]

"Mayor Bloomberg wants permission to forbid people from using food stamps to buy soda."

Just ban food stamps instead.

Problem solved.

[Butts Wagner]

Instead veggie stamps, greek yogurt stamps, lean chicken stamps, low-sodium snack stamps, etc will be given out in proportion to the applicant's BMI and weight.

[wylie]

Lean Chicken? How can chickens get any leaner? It's just cardboard isn't it.

[Gilbert Martin]

How about issuing certificates of performance - green pieces of paper with pictures of dead presidents on them - to people who perform some usefull work.

They can then use those certificates to buy whatever kind of food they choose.

What a novel concept!

[Warty]

greek yogurt stamp

Skim-milk greek yogurt, naturally. We couldn't have them eating the stuff that's made from whole milk and actually tastes good.

[SugarFree]

Have you tried Icelandic yogurt?

[dbcooper]

Nope, but Icelandic lamb is quite interesing.

[Warty]

Is that jizz? I hate Scandinavian semen.

[SugarFree]

It's strained until it is close to the texture of fresh goat cheese. Super tangy and the protein content is very high. I usually get it from Whole Foods.

[wylie]

I've always said the problem with yogurt is that it isn't cheese.

[Brett L]

Why don't they do something productive -- a WIC-like list, that maintains ALL food bought on assistance has to be cheap and meet a minimum nutritional standard? If its good enough for pregnant women and babies, its good enough for everyone.

[mad libertarian guy]

Racist!!!

[Warty]

DURR HRR its satyre you guys

[shrike]

No, it isn't.

[Ragin Cajun]

It's from the reality-based community. Whaddya want?

[SugarFree]

Zinn addicts complaining about revisionist history. Oh, the irony.

[Madbiker]

My Left-Coast Lesbian Sister-in-Law (who is a really nice person and a kick-ass cook, and I love her) gave me and hubby a copy of Zinn's book several years ago. I was paying attention until I got to page, what, 10 or so? wherein Zinn explains the Eden that was pre-Columbian American Native existence. As though uncontaminated-by-European-influence societies never felt any human emotion or impulse other than denial and its fruit, pure harmony, with each other and their environment.

To assert that life for native peoples was always harmonious and devoid of conflict prior to Contact with Europeans (which was, indeed, catastrophic for most/all native peoples) is to deny them humanity: no jealousy, no desire for social standing or wealth relative to what their society valued, complacent acceptance of mating choices and preferences, no ritualized or spontaneous violence - EVER!, or competition for territory and its associated resources. Just pure peaceful negotiation and tribal/family life. Ahh, the good ole' days.

[Brett L]

Standard Rousseauvean 'noble savage' bullshit. Its not even original stupidity.

[Warty]

Madbiker, read this. One of the main themes of the book is the way we take away the humanity of Indians by doing what you said.

[Butts Wagner]

Series of illustrations: George Washington and the cherry tree, George Washington in battle, and the American flag, flying high against a blue sky background.

I've got to admit, that commercial with George Washington arriving on the battle field in his Dodge Challenger makes me do fist pumps and say "Fuck Yeah!"

[P Brooks]

Guess who!

Modern American conservatism is, in large part, a movement shaped by billionaires and their bank accounts, and assured paychecks for the ideologically loyal are an important part of the system. Scientists willing to deny the existence of man-made climate change, economists willing to declare that tax cuts for the rich are essential to growth, strategic thinkers willing to provide rationales for wars of choice, lawyers willing to provide defenses of torture, all can count on support from a network of organizations that may seem independent on the surface but are largely financed by a handful of ultrawealthy families.

The vast right-wing conspiracy is alive and well, thanks to evil billionaires.

[Jose]

Fed Officials Mull Inflation as a Fix:

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....01732.html

[Max Chony]

One perverse twist of colony collapse that has compounded the difficulty of solving it is that the bees do not just die ? they fly off in every direction from the hive, then die alone and dispersed.

See, that's what libertarian radical individualism gets you -- instead of working together and living, they fly off all alone and die.

[Hacha Cha]

The media is treating Puerto Rico as if it were not a US territory.

[Tulpa]

For obvious reasons, social animals tend to go far away from their communities when they sense they're about to die. The last thing a hive needs is a bunch of dead bees laying around.

[????? ??????]

Thanks